Wednesday, February 4, 2009

By The Bootstraps

I’ve got myself another case of the wintertime blahs. It’s cold and damp, with the occasional sunny afternoon just to tease me. Looming deadlines at work are making me nervous, and I can’t seem to get enough of the right kind of sleep. I'm starting to take it personally.

The way I see it, I’ve got a choice here: I can either slip into a lovely case of self-pity and depression, or I can bootstrap my way out of it by doing things which have a history of perking me up.

I get annoyed with myself when I indulge in self-pity, and I simply have no time for depression just now… so I’ve taken myself down to my favorite pub for lunch. The nice waiter just delivered a pint of stout, my sandwich will be here in a few minutes, and I’m looking out the window at a sunny day. I can do this. Bootstraps are a good thing to have.

I finished the Socks to Ruin My Eyes this weekend, once I decided how long they should be. They were both the same length at the time, so I ran lifelines on them. I knit the toe on one sock, and then for the other I knit another pattern repeat before I did the toe.

I knew going in that this approach would mean knitting three toes for two socks, but I figured it would be worth it if I ended up with the fit I wanted. I ended up going with the shorter sock, the option on the right. The lace opens up just a little bit more, and I preferred the look.

So, I ripped the longer sock back to the proper length and knit the third toe. The toes have been grafted, but I somehow managed to screw one of them up badly enough that there’s a sizeable hole along the graft. I’m going to have to pick it out and do it again. Honestly, you’d think I’d never Kitchenered before…

6 comments:

Dilly
said...

Nice socks! I like them! And good strategy for the toe. Good thing you're not lazy like I am - I would have just left the second toe longer and not changed it to match the first. I hate re-knitting, even when it means a better end-product.

About Me

My education is in history, so naturally I’ve been working in IT for the past 11 years. I took up knitting several years ago, in search of the perfect sweater. Along the way, I have revised my idea of what the perfect sweater might be, and I’ve also discovered lace and socks. I’m currently trying to stuff all of my yarn into two containers under my bed, in complete denial about the fact that I need to buy another one.